Oww! I forgot how much the needles hurt....

Ok, so after a little bit of thought, I decided I wanted to get another piercing. Over the years I've had quite a few things done (navel, nostril, two standard lobes in each ear, tragus and a very bad helix piercing that was done with a gun - owwww). Sadly I've had to take them out for many reasons, ranging for migration and infection, to unsypathetic bosses.

I looked on BME and decided that my ear would be a good place to have a hole poked. The question was what hole should I get... Eventually I settled on getting a conch piercing. After looking at a lot of pictures this seemed to stick in my mind more than the other images I had seen. As my birthday was coming up I thought it would make a nice birthday present to myself.

I haven't been in London for that long, and haven't had anything pierced since I've been here, so the first thing I needed to do was to find a good piercing place that was open late enough for me to go one day after work. I could have gone the weekend of my birthday, but as I intended to be drinking quite a lot, I figured that probably wasn't such a good idea, with the threat of excessive bleeding and so on....

So anyway, back to finding a studio..... I looked on the internet and used Google maps to help me search for some places... interesting, but some of them looked pretty awful when I visited their sites, so I thought I should keep looking. Anyway, I can't quite remember how I came to discover that there was a piercing place inside Selfridges, but there is, and after researching it, I felt comfortable enough to call them and check out prices and so on.

I was told it would be £45, so I picked a day after work and headed down to the studio. Well, silly me, I stupidly forgot to check that the piercer would actually be avaliable on that evening, and unfortunately he wasn't, but this gave me the opportunity to actually see the place and meet the people who worked there. This seemed to strengthen my decision to go there, and I went home again feeling happy and resolving to phone the following week to find out when the piercer was working.

The following week.....

I made the call to find out which evening I could go, and settled on the Tuesday. Sitting on the tube after work, I started getting really nervous, so I ate some sweets to keep my sugar levels up, and concentrated on the lovely new piece of jewellery I would soon be going home with.

I got to the studio and explained what it was that I wanted. After checking my ID, picking out what jewellery I wanted (a plain black barbell, 1.6mm x 10mm, I think) and paying, I filled out the concent form and waited while the piercer (Jon) went to set up. Weirdly, I didn't nervous at all by this point. Once in the room, I sat on the bench/table thing and watched while Jon sorted out the last few things and changed his gloves a lot.

Next he began marking my ear, and after changing my mind on the placement twice, I finally settled on quite a central placement. At this point my nerves were starting to get the better of me, but I sat still and tried to ignore them. Jon asked if I was ready, and I nodded. Next he said for me to take some deep breaths and then... OWWW! I felt the needle go through and heard a strange crunching noise, but then it was ok. It pulled a little as he put the jewellery through and tightened the ball on the barbell, but that was uncomfortable more than anything else.

After checking I was ok, and didn't feel giddy or anything, I jumped down off the bench and checked how my new piercing looked in the mirror. It is SO cute! Definately my favourite out of everything I've had done (and since taken out). I thanked Jon, and headed home, my ear feeling a little hot, but not too painful, and with a dinky little bottle of aftercare solution.

Sleeping last night was an interesting experience. I went to bed telling myself that I had to stay still all night and not fidget. This is hard for me as I am the most wriggly sleeper in the world. Ever. Anyway, I woke up at 5 this morning, feeling pretty stiff, I had somehow managed to keep still, but pleased to discover that my ear didn't really hurt that much at all. I took a couple of pain killers to get me through work, but the pain has all but gone. It just feels a bit sore and bruised. I can't wait for it to be fully healed.

A lot of experiences I read on BME said they found having a conch piercing pretty painless. I am clearly a big wuss, but I still highly recommend this piercing, and Metal Morphosis, to anyone. :)

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submitted by: Anonymouson: 28 Sept. 2008in
Ear Piercing

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Artist: JonStudio: Metal+MorphosisLocation: Selfridges%2C+London

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